


Merry Christmas, Martha

by Safiyabat



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 03:17:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Safiyabat/pseuds/Safiyabat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martha and Jack have a chat about the past, the present and the future.  Set after she leaves the Doctor and before she calls him back to Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Christmas, Martha

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for tumblr user tombranson as part of the tumblr Secret Santa project. It's a little weird because she's not really part of any of the fandoms I'm into, so I had to kind of give myself a crash course and hope for the best. I found myself really liking Martha - she's become my favorite companion.

Martha glanced around her flat. It wasn’t big. It didn’t need to be. It wasn’t as though she spent a lot of time there. Her job kept her busy. Her family kept her busier. If her fiancé weren’t off in Africa being all heroic she’d probably give the place up entirely. On the other hand, it was nice to have a place that was just… hers. It was her own space, entirely hers. If she turned off her phone – like so – even her family squabbles couldn’t reach her here. 

She sighed and took off her shoes. Tonight had been the family Christmas party. Perhaps it had been a little too much to hope that their experiences at the Master’s hands would have turned anything around for the better. Dad had gotten rid of his (admittedly wretched) girlfriend, but that hadn’t been because he wanted to get back together and try things again with Mum. No, it had been because she hadn’t been through a year of torture and humiliation and misery the way he had and she couldn’t relate. Now he had a new girlfriend, who likewise hadn’t been through a year of torture and humiliation and misery but at least had experienced the same timeline at the same time as he had. She was a solicitor. Martha actually kind of liked her. So did Tish and Leo.

Mum did not, with predictable results.

Words had been said, and more words had been said, and because Francine was not the kind of woman to take repeated insults passively there was eventually a scene. Ultimately Martha had just got up and left. She felt bad about it of course. It was Christmas and here she was stalking out like a fed-up housemaid. (She’d been a fed-up housemaid once, in 1913.) At the same time her saturation levels had been reached and it was just time. Now here she was, barely eleven o’clock on a Friday night and she was already on the couch and ready to put her pajamas on.

The knock on the door, therefore, was a surprise. She peered through the peephole, then opened it. “Captain Jack Harkness!” she marveled. “I haven’t seen you in months. How are you?”

“Oh, you know. Still around.” The American gave a wry grin. “How about you?” He noticed her dress. “Have I interrupted something?”

“No, no. I just got back from the family holiday party,” she laughed. “Sometimes retreat is the only option.” She stood aside. “Come in, please.”

“Thanks.” He looked around. “Nice place you’ve got here.” 

She felt her cheeks warm. “It’s not like I’m around much. Between the job and the family, you know?”

He nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I know. Sometimes it’s nice to have a place to call your own. Someplace you can retreat to.” He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a bottle. “I thought I might stop by and check in on you, see how you’re doing in retirement, maybe share a drink. This is a magnificent spirit they make on Ramian, it’s just fantastic. Perfect for a festive occasion.&rdquo

She paused for a moment. She wasn’t a big drinker… but right now she wouldn’t mind a little something to make the evening a little brighter. And it seemed like Jack could use a little brightening too. “I’ll get some glasses,” she smiled at him. “Grab a seat.” She returned with two tumblers and some cheese and crackers, because she couldn’t very well not offer food when alcohol was going to be consumed.

“So,” he began. “UNIT, huh? If I’d known you were looking for work I’d have offered you a place at Torchwood.”

“They approached me, Jack. Not long after the whole… the whole thing, you know? They approached me.” She sipped the drink he poured for her. “Festive occasions indeed! This is… this is magical, Jack!” 

He laughed. “Isn’t it, though? Nothing quite like it that I’ve found, not in all the universe. Are you doing okay?”

“What, with UNIT? Oh, sure. The work is interesting, and they rushed my exams and all so I’m a full doctor now. Doctor Martha Jones.” She smiled proudly. “Rushed it through because of all my work in the field.”

He snorted. “What, like walking the Earth for an entire year?” 

“I guess so, yeah. Among other things. I could write a dissertation on performing CPR on a being with two hearts if you’d like.” 

They shared a guffaw, with the immortal folding himself almost off the couch. “You never know, that might come in handy again someday,” he commented. “Time Lords and all, they might come back.” 

She glanced out the window. “Not entirely sure how I feel about that, actually. I mean, I’ve only met two.”

“Yeah, but you loved one.” She looked up sharply at him but he only gave her a gentle, knowing smile. “It’s hardly good scientific practice to make a judgment from a sample set of two, Doctor.” He took a sip from his glass.

“Okay, you’re right. And sure, maybe I did love him.” She drank from her glass. “Can the universe really tolerate more than one of the other one?” She shuddered.

“I have to think that if they produced the Doctor they probably managed to get a lot more right than they got wrong.” He looked around. “It’s not the same, is it?” 

She looked at him, hand paused over a cracker. “What do you mean?”

“Working for UNIT. It isn’t the same as it was when you were travelling with the Doctor.” 

She put her hand down. “Of course not. How could it be? He’s… well, you know. He’s the Doctor, with everything that means. But it wasn’t right. This… this is right. That’s why I left.” 

His eyebrows rose up into his hairline. “You left?” She forced a laugh. “What, don’t they usually?”

“No. I don’t think they’ve ever left on purpose. I could be wrong.” He shook his head. “How could you… how could you just walk away from all of that? From him?” 

She sighed. “Jack…. Listen. I loved him.” 

“I think you still do. You must.”

“Of course I still do. I don’t think anyone else could possibly understand that, but you do.” A corner of his mouth quirked up. Nailed it, she thought. “But it wasn’t mutual. He didn’t want the same things from me that I wanted from him. He didn’t care about me the same way that I cared about him, he didn’t even respect me the same way that he respected the ones who came before. Maybe I wasn’t his cup of tea but I am not second best. Or third best. Or whatever.” 

Jack was quiet for a few moments, just staring at the table. “But you love him.”

“Of course.”

“What about…” He gestured at the ring on her finger.

She laughed. “Tom? Yeah, he’s amazing. He’s a doctor, doing some emergency work down in Africa at the moment. He’s a real hero, you know.”

“And you’re not?”

“That’s the thing. He… he was involved with that whole thing with Saxon, you know. He was part of the resistance. I got to know him then.”

“And you don’t think you’re doing the same thing with Tom that the Doctor was doing to you?” 

She tilted her head to the side. “No, Jack. I don’t.” 

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve moved on. I know I love the Doctor but I don’t only love the Doctor. My heart is open. I might just have one, but I can let it be filled by someone who wants to be in it. And who wants me in theirs.”

He looked around the apartment. “So all this is enough for you, then?” 

She shrugged. “It’s not all of time and space, but it’ll do.” She put a hand on his. “And you? Is there something that specifically brought this on?” Something clicked in her head. “You’ve found someone.” 

He blushed. “Maybe. Possibly. I don’t know. I’m not exactly good at fidelity in the first place, you know?” 

She raised an eyebrow. “Who’s the lucky person that they’ve got you even discussing fidelity?”

“No one you know. If things… if it works out, maybe that’ll change.” He sighed. “He’s away right now.” 

“So Christmas alone then.” 

He shrugged. “It was never a big holiday for me.”

“Why not join me for the Jones Family Christmas Spectacular? Tom’s in Darfur right now, I could use a plus one. I’m sure you’ve missed all their bickering.”

He laughed. “You don’t think they’d have flashbacks just looking at me?”

“Might remind them of the important things in life.”

“It might.” He raised his glass to her. “I just might do that, Martha Jones.”

“I hope you will, Jack Harkness.”


End file.
